1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to transaction brokering systems, specifically systems which permit consumers to interact with merchants over a communication network to achieve brokered deals for services or merchandise. The present invention augments the prior art by permitting an independent transaction arbiter to act as an interface between consumers and merchants and permit merchant bidding functions to compete within a merchant function database to optimize competition among merchants and present the optimal possible bid to a request-for-quote generated by the customer for a requested product or service.
2. Description of Related Arts
Overview (0100)
The prior art is generally illustrated in FIG. 1 (0100), wherein a consumer (0101) interacts with a computer interface (0102) to communicate (0103) the specifications of a requested item (0104) to a merchant search engine (0105). This request generally specifies only the description (part number, item name, etc.) of the requested item (0104). The merchant search engine has previously interacted with a number of merchants (0107, 0108) to interrogate price data associated with a number of available items, combining this information into a merchant price database (0106). This merchant price database (0106) is interrogated by the merchant search engine (0105) to provide the consumer (0101) with a list of available prices (normally sorted with lowest price first) available from the list of available merchants (0107, 0108).
Deficiencies in the Prior Art
The major deficiency with the prior art is that the merchant price data (0106) is generally a static quantity and is merely sorted and displayed to the consumer (0101) based on the generation of an item price search request (0104). The merchants (0107, 0108) generally have no opportunity to update their pricing information in response to pricing information generated by other merchants. As a result, the customer (0101) generally does not obtain an optimal price, as there is no active cross bidding between merchants, as there would be in a reverse auction environment.